Sustainable sorbents for dispersive solid-phase extraction in environmental analysis

For years, scientists have developed sustainable methods for the determination of trace environmental pollutants, in alignment with the principles of Green Analytical Chemistry. Dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) has gained significant attention in sample preparation due to its simplicity, rapid processing, and high efficiency. This technique is also versatile, thanks to the wide array of available sorbents of different selectivity. One of the latest prominent trend is the search for efficient sorbents derived from natural sources and through the reuse of waste materials. This article offers a comprehensive overview of d-SPE, emphasizing the sustainability of sorbents employed in the technique. The potential of using natural and food-waste products (cork, algae, fruit peels, etc.), biopolymers (cellulose, chitosan, cyclodextrin, etc.), as well as waste plastic products is explored. The study of the scientific literature reveals that these alternative materials can perform on par with available synthetic sorbents, while offering significant benefits in terms of sustainability.